On November 2nd I got three beautiful baby male rats from a
local rescue organization (Rattie
Ratz). They are as cute as can be, and wonderfully friendly
and trusting.

I spent about an hour and a half at the rescue with a little cage
of babies from two litters, playing with them all and watching
them. Five or six of them stayed hidden most of the time, so I
didn't bother them. The other five or six came out to exlore,
check me out, run back, return, and bounce about. All were tame
and hand reared, but I wanted the very friendliest ones.

A charming little blazed agouti came out onto my lap again and
again... no sooner did I pop him back in the cage than he was
out again. A beautiful reddish agouti was always on the edge of the
cage or crawling on my lap, and when I picked him up he felt calm and
confident in my hands. I choose those two first and put them in my
carrier so I could focus on a third.

The third was a little harder to choose... there were
several agoutis who climbed out but I could not tell which one was
which, and I did want rats that looked different enough to tell them
apart from the ones I had. A little agouti hooded caught my
eye. He was an intrepid little guy, jumping out of the cage
onto me or in an attempt to get out to explore. Several times
he slithered down the side of the cage and was on his way into the
wide world before I could grab him. I'd hold him and he'd tense up a
bit and scurry to get back in the cage... but as soon as his
feet hit the bedding he'd turn around and climb right back up into my
lap. He couldn't make up his mind! Gradually all the rats in the cage
calmed down and piled in a corner, but the little agouti hooded kept
trying to get out and onto my lap and into the great blue
yonder. So I picked him.

So the new babies are:

a six week old blazed berkshire agouti

a seven week old reddish agouti berkshire

a seven week old agouti hooded (these last two are
brothers).

Here are some photos of the little guys:

The three boys arriving home in the travel cage. The red agouti is
the one climbing out. The hooded and blazed agoutis are still inside.
I placed them all in a large, temporary tupperware, until I can build
or buy them a new cage:

Here's the little red agouti standing up in his new home.

The following evening, I covered the dining room table with some
cloth, and put some boxes, a paper bag, and a pile of polar fleece
strips on it, and let the little guys out to play. The blazed rat was
the first one bold enough to venture out. The other two were more
hesitant, and took a little prompting. But afer ten minutes all three
were romping around the table, hiding in the bag, hiding in the
boxes, and burrowing in the polar fleece. Here are some photos of
their first play session!

The blazed and hooded rats pause for a moment at the entrance of
the paper bag: